1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of digital electronic information, and more particularly to a method and system for searching audio files.
2. History of Related Art
Audio information is frequently distributed on a storage medium (referred to herein as a multimedia storage medium or audio storage medium) such as a compact disc (CD), digital video disc (DVD), audio tape, or VCR tape. On such media, audio information is typically arranged in a sequential fashion. Locating a particular portion of the audio information typically requires the user to advance (or reverse) through the media under manual control in an attempt to locate the precise location containing the desired information. Typically, however, the user's ability to rapidly locate a desired portion of the audio content is significantly limited. In an application where, for example, music is stored on a CD, the user is usually able only to advance to a pre-determined number of locations within the CD, namely, the beginning of each song on the CD. Within a particular song, the user may have the ability to advance the disc by a specified amount, but the audio output is typically disabled while the disc is advanced making it difficult to locate quickly a precise point in the song. Similarly, many consumers have had the experience of fast forwarding an audio tape or VCR to find a particular location in the tape. Typically, the user must respond reactively to media content that is flashing across a television screen or coming from a speaker at an unintelligible rate resulting in a back and forth search process that is time consuming, annoying, and potentially detrimental to the media player as its mechanism are rapidly altered from fast forward and reverse settings to a play setting.